Pull Your Coat: Jazz News And Links For October

By David Johnson

Published September 11, 2019 at 3:30 PM EDT

Some Recent Stories And Items Of Note:

Actor Tony Curtis passed away Wednesday night at the age of 85. One of Curtis' most highly-touted films was the 1957 showbiz-noir movie Sweet Smell of Success; you can listen to a Night Lights program about the film, its stars, and its jazz soundtrack, here. The show includes interviews with Cold-War-era musicologist Phil Ford and film scholar James Naremore, who recently published a book about the movie.

Speaking of films, there's an excellent documentary about jazz pianist and Peanuts composer Vince Guaraldi that's starting to make the rounds. You can see preview clips from The Anatomy of Vince Guaraldi here. For more about Guaraldi, check out last year's Night Lights show, It's Jazz, Charlie Brown: the Vince Guaraldi Story.

There's a wave of CTI reissues coming-not, however, without some interesting issues. Jazzwax's Marc Myers weighs in on A Tale of Two CTI's.

Pianist Jason Moran talks to the Wall Street Journal about winning a MacArthur genius grant.

NPR's A Blog Supreme looks over the results of its recent query, What's the First John Coltrane Album You Fell in Love With? Tough question... for me, I think it was Giant Steps.

Speaking of Coltrane, in case you missed it the first time around, the Smoking Gun has uncovered a picture of a young Trane in his naval togs.

Coming up on Night Lights this week: "Autumn Serenades," with music from Nat King Cole, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Cannonball Adderley, and more.